1) Iron interfacing to wrong side of tree and tree trunk pieces. I laid mine out on a strip and ironed all at once. Just make sure you don't iron directly on the interfacing!

2) Cut out all pieces.

3) Baste your background fabric to your batting.

4) Plan your layout. Make sure you work with at least a 2" border, and lay out the trees in a desirable fashion. At this point, it's helpful to take a picture of your layout!

5) Pin your first tree (starting with the trunk if applicable) to the background. Using a walking foot (if you have one), topstitch the trunk and tree to the background. You can use decorative stitches if desired.

I went out of order with some of my trees, to create a little interest.

7)Once you have appliqued all of your trees, create a ground level with a few lines of quilting. I used brown thread for this, but feel free to use whatever feels right! You could use white for snow, perhaps. But in Texas, the ground is brown in the winter.

8) Now, we need to attach our backing fabric. Baste the back fabric to the other side of the batting.

9) Now, quilt around the trees! You could choose to quilt over them, but I like the effect of quilting around them. I tried to create some movement with wavy lines. Have fun with this!

10) When you are satisfied with your quilting, trim your mini down to the desired size. My mini is 16" x 19". Make sure you leave at least an inch border, so your trees don't get covered up by the binding!

11) Make binding. I used 2 1/2" binding with a 3/8" seam allowance.

Apply your binding to the front of the quilt using your machine.

12)Apply your binding to the second side. I adore the hand sewing process on the second side, but you can surely apply it by machine if that's your thing!

5)Using a small piece of baker's twine or yarn, lay the linen and prints right sides together, with the twine inserted between the layers. There should be a loop between the fabrics, with the ends outside.

6) Stitch around all four edges. Make sure you use a shorter stitch length (I used 1.5) when stitching over the baker's twine! Also, leave a small opening to turn out the tag.

7)Flip the right sides out, clip corners and press.

8)Topstitch, and you're done! Repeat as desired.

These tags will work for year-round gift-giving and can be personalized to your heart's content!

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This blog is a collection of my amateur attempts to knit, sew, cook and do other crafty stuff. I live in Houston with my husband and three cats, Bella, Olias and Fitzgerald. You can contact me at parandroid7 at gmail dot com. You can find some destash and handmade goods in my etsy shop, at http://www.etsy.com/shop/Jaceycraft